The First and the Forced

African American History, American legal system, ethnic studies, Native Americans

Over the last two weeks, the issues of law and race surfaced while board members were traveling in the Deep South (Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi). Previously these states were frontier regions, territories exchanged frequently among European nations, and heavily populated by Native peoples and Africans. To this day, their histories and even current conditions are based on race relations over centuries. On an estate in Albany, Georgia, once the largest Read More

Myths of Creation

African American History, African Diaspora, American legal system, American politics, ancestors, descendants of slaves, ethnic studies, Native Americans, Slave economy, slave ports, slavery, transatlantic slave trade

In the British Virginia Colony during the summer of 1619, two events took place within weeks of each other that would shape the United States of America in profoundly contradictory ways.  One event was the initial legislative assembly of Englishmen meeting in Jamestowne from July 30 to August 4. The other event was the arrival at Point Comfort of a Dutch slaver during the third week in August, when according Read More

Source Documents for Blog Posts (February – April, 2012)

African American History, African American literature, African Diaspora, Afro-Caribbeans, Afro-Latinos, American legal system, American politics, ancestors, captured Africans, descendants of slaves, ethnic studies, Middle Passage, slave ships, slavery, transatlantic slave trade

Audio/Visual: “First Time I Saw Big Water” Composed and produced by Bernice Johnson Reagon, performed by Bernice Johnson Reagon and Toshi Reagon for the PBS-WGBH film series Africans in America, Executive Producer, Orlando Bagwell “Betye Saar, National Visionary”: National Visionary Leadership Project: African American History. The video consists of ten interviews in which Ms. Saar personally relates her artistry, family background, professional experiences and influences during a life time dedicated Read More

Why History?

adinkra symbols, African American History, African Diaspora, American legal system, American politics, ethnic studies, slave ships, slavery, transatlantic slave trade

During the past several weeks, board members of the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project have found themselves frequently in conversations with people who suggest that we sustain a more formal educational component, something beyond this blog. One comment was that the United States in particular does not value history or anything in the past. Our people were described as more comfortable in the present or headed into the Read More

Keorapetse Kgositsile and Brenda Marie Osbey at Brown University, April 2011

African American History, African American literature, African Diaspora, African literature, ethnic studies

This spring two premier poets, one from South Africa and one from the United States, exemplified the connection through word art of the Continent and the Americas. We were fortunate enough to obtain Charles Cobb’s introduction of them to the Brown community. A webcast of this historic event was made and if any blog visitor is interested please contact the Department of Africana Studies, Brown University for access. The temptation Read More

Developing a National and Global Identity

African American History, African American literature, African Diaspora, Afro-Latinos, Central America, descendants of slaves, ethnic studies, Mexican Americans, Mexico, slavery

The previous post, Imagine: From the Black Atlantic to a New World Order, triggered an idea which we would like to continue to explore. First, what image comes to mind when you are asked to envision or describe a person from Ecuador? Brazilian religious practices? Traits of the Mexican persona? Cuban music? The literature of Uruguay or the politics of Columbia? Do any of these reflect an African influence in Read More

Source Documents for Blog Visitors, February 2012

African American History, African American music, African Diaspora, African ethnic groups, Afro-Latinos, burial ceremonies, captured Africans, descendants of slaves, enslaved women, ethnic studies, Mexican Americans, oral history, Slave economy, slave ships, slavery, transatlantic slave trade

This project is committed to getting out information to those who are interested. We pledged to provide readers quarterly with materials that we base the posts upon, so here are the second quarter’s materials as promised by category with annotation. Articles: African Burial Ground Project: paradigm for cooperation? by Michael Blakey (Museum International, UNESCO, 2010). Professor Blakey is on our project’s advisory board and worked continuously on the Manhattan African Burial Ground Project. Read More

Adinkra Symbols

adinkra symbols, African ethnic groups, ancestors, ethnic studies

This month the project began soliciting post topics from board members and interested persons. There was a suggestion to explore the significance of adinkra symbols to the Akan, Ghanaians, and persons in the Diaspora. It seemed like an easy subject to tackle and so research was started. In exploring this subject, the use of symbols, pictographs and hieroglyphics as language mushroomed. In the same manner that advertisers and manufacturers create a Read More

Ethnic Studies: The Rest of the Story

African American History, ethnic studies, Mexican Americans

During the last week of December 2011, Arizona Administrative Law Judge Lewis Kowal ruled that the curriculum used in Tucson’s Mexican American studies programs was biased. Part of his decision stated: …However, teaching oppression objectively is quite different than actively presenting material in a biased, political, and emotionally charged manner, which is what occurred in MAS classes. Teaching in such a manner promotes social or political activism against the white Read More

African Americans: The Canary in the Mine

African American History, American legal system, American politics, ancestors, descendants of slaves, ethnic studies, slavery

Through conditioning and experience, especially after age 35, African Americans, almost to a person, understand the United States from a different perspective than other Americans. W.E.B. Du Bois described it as living in two worlds, having two voices. In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois said that African Americans were neither African nor American, but both. That has held true throughout the history of the United States. For example, Black Read More